County government workers have given their bosses 21 days to address their grievances or they will down their tools.
Addressing reporters yesterday, workers under their umbrella body, the Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU), claimed they were being discriminated against in ongoing salary adjustments.
They said they had been left out when their counterparts in the national government had received a pay hike.
Saying this was unfair and unlawful, they lamented that such acts had demoralised employees in various sectors.
Those affected include ECDE teachers, sanitation workers, firefighters, enforcement officers, garbage collectors, revenue clerks, parking attendants, TVET instructors, mortuary attendants and ambulances attendants.
Alleged discrimination
Led by KCGWU secretary general Roba Duba (pictured), the workers said they had written to county governors and secretaries informing them of their plan to down their tools.
Said Duba: “We hereby demand the immediate implementation of [a salary increase] for all county employees without any further delay within 21 days [or] we shall call upon all county employees to down their tools until the same is implemented.”
He added: “We are now perturbed that the discrimination has shifted from some county employees to all county employees as the implementation of the second phase [begins].
“This phase is said to cover all public servants of the national government to the exclusion of all county workers.”
Duba, with other union officials, also lamented that members had been selectively left from phase one salary adjustments where all public servants were to get an increase of between 7 percent to 10 percent.
The strike threats came after the government moved to avert a looming civil servants’ strike, committing to implement the second phase of the 2021-2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that would see them get a pay rise.
This is after Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi met with union officials and announced that the National Treasury had provided Sh1.5 billion to the ministry to implement the remaining phase of the CBA that came into effect on 1 July 2024.
Calling off a planned strike, Union of Civil Servants of Kenya secretary general Tom Odege said the government had vowed to keep its end of the bargain.
